Only Way Out
by Angie Collective
Summary: Post Neo-Vytal AU. Ever since the epidemic of overpopulation that happened throughout Vytal, the Schnee Association only had one rule to establish and maintain- arrest all who may be in suspicion of any criminal activities they committed. It didn't matter how petty or severe the crime may be, they'll still be sentenced for one million years. Chapter 2 is up!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello everyone! This is the first fanfiction I've ever wrote (and also my debut of this website w). This AU is taken place in a futuristic/post-apocalypse of an oppressive regime (to which I also got inspired from a game called Freedom Wars)! I plan to incorporate the majority of the characters of RWBY that will be parallel to this AU, so stay tuned!**

**Thanks to my friends betaflower and reeves3 for beta-reading my work! C:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

One million years.

One million years to life in prison in the desolate continent of Vytal in year VT 102XXX.

Ever since the epidemic of overpopulation that happened throughout Vytal, the Schnee Association only had one rule to establish and maintain- arrest all who may be in suspicion of any criminal activities they committed. It didn't matter how petty or severe the crime may be, they'll still be sentenced for one million years.

Living itself is a sin.

In one occurrence it happened to two sisters. Short, velvet hair contrasted the wild, blonde hair cascading down the back of a stunning beauty. A pair of silver eyes, still retaining a child-like innocence, glanced at lilac eyes in confirmation. Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long fully intended to trespass and scavenge an abandoned Dust shop.

The sun was setting behind the once tall buildings, leaving open cracks and broken windows for rays of sunshine to come through. Many of the foundations had been eroded due to heavy participation and lack of quality control for constant maintenance. Few buildings could withstand such circumstances.

It was a perfect setting for those who planned to discreetly sneak through the barren streets.

Tiny screws were scattered across and had fallen between cracks of a cemented sidewalk as Ruby assembled and placed her crafted circuit disruptor into a control panel. Yang was on a lookout from a nearby area in case of any unexpected onlookers passing by. Inside the panel was the main source of an intricate surveillance camera system surrounded the shop, and they had no plans to get caught any time soon.

After some last minute tweaking of the disruptor, Ruby placed her multi-tool into the back pouch and pressed the start button.

_Click._

A sequence of codes appeared on screen from the disruptor, bypassing its way through the firewalls. It took less than thirty seconds before the time duration of the device appeared.

_Beep. _Five minutes_. _ It was a window of opportunity she and her sister had to take.

Ruby gave Yang a signal to re-join her before they headed off to the back of the shop. Yang popped the vent off with her bare hands before taking a lead to crawl through the air duct, followed by Ruby. It was dark, dingy, and dusty inside- no signs of previous break-in entries before them.

"Ugh, it's dark in here." Yang commented. "Bring me some light will ya, sis?"

_Flick._ "Bring your own next time, Yang." Ruby handed over a flashlight, deadpanned.

"Haha, sorry 'bout that." Yang grabbed the flashlight and continued to crawl into the duct with proper vision.

A few moments later, Yang stopped her tracks and found an exit point. She quickly instructed Ruby to stay back as she began to lift her leg up.

_Bash! Bash! WHAM! _Yang's mighty kicks led the vent skidded across the floor and crashed into a section of a crumbling concrete wall, leaving an opening for Yang and Ruby to crawl out of the duct.

The once vibrant Dust shop filled with various Dust ores and powder displays was now vacant with rubble and empty, large vials. There was, however, parts and different Dusts were lying around to be salvaged.

This was good news. Yang cracked her knuckles and took a deep breath before kneeling down to the bottom shelves and started to scavenge. It was Ruby's turn to look out for Yang. After all, time was ticking and she knew they had little room to rest before taking off into the night.

"Yang, are you done yet? We don't have much time!" Ruby whined.

"Don't worry, sis. I got this."

With that said, Yang collected and carefully placed small quantities of highly explosive Dust and salvageable parts into her satchel. Most of the places that were abandoned on the surface had been cleaned out from previous scavengers, leaving little to no leftovers. It was frustrating although those greedy bastards usually ended up getting caught by patrolling androids of the Association.

What was their charge? Trespassing and a one million year sentence to slap onto their foreheads.

A sigh escaped from Ruby's lips. All that time, how could anyone be able to live with that?

"Hey sis, you okay?"

Ruby took a moment to shake off her drifting thoughts before looking up at her sister and nodded.

"I'm fine, Yang. Got what we need?" She asked.

Yang showed the satchel with Dusts and parts inside. "Yep! Let's get back before _they_ show up."

Oh, that's right. They were violating two of the protocols the Association systematized for its people: trespass a place with surveillance and going up to the surface past curfew. Their home currently resided in the undergrounds of Vale, a shell of what was formerly known as a city of hope and prosperity. Historically, Vale was the place of opportunities for those that sought wealth, success and freedom. It appealed to people throughout Vytal to the point where many would take their chances to make a living there.

It was also the time when the overpopulation epidemic started to occur.

At first, the constant rise of new residences forced many people to move underground to save space. The Schnee Association proposed a plan for the new citizens to be settled with their just built homes as soon as possible within the next few months made possible by the amount of funds and profits the Association obtained from partnerships and Dust distributions.

The months passed and yet no word came back.

Citizens wondered what was going on up on the surface and decided to see what was going on. Many went out in small groups at a time, leaving the rest to stay put.

The groups never came back.

Eventually, the silence had been broken with blaring speakers systematically telling their citizens to come up to the surface to surrender themselves for "the greater good"-living a life sentence of one million years.

What was the reason of the life sentence? Many wouldn't know, except those that were ambitious enough to find out the truth behind the epidemic.

Ruby was one of those exceptions.

"Hello~ Earth to sis~ Are you lost in your thoughts again?"

Ruby blinked for a moment before a hand smothered her face.

"Mmmfph! Yang I'm so sorry I didn't mean to get lost into my own thoughts again I mean- -"

Yang pulled her hand back and chuckled. "It's fine. I'm concerned about you but we'll have more things to worry about if you keep your head in the clouds."

As if on cue, two pairs of footsteps were heard, echoing into the empty lot outside the shop. It sounded firm, precised, and uniform.

Both pair of eyes widened at each other, surprised and horrified of the situation they got themselves into.

"Oh, crap! _They're here_!? But they're not _supposed _to be around at this time!" Yang groaned.

"We need to hide, quickly!" By instinct, Ruby and Yang dove behind a counter for cover. They were close to an air vent, which led to the back of the building and a getaway exit to their underground home.

"Okay, now that we're here, we need to blind them with our "smoke screen". You've got some with you right, Yang?"

Yang quickly patted her pouch.

"…I only have one left." She uttered.

"Are you kidding me!? Why now!" Ruby shrieked in frustration.

"Ruby! They can hear you from here-"

_"Intruders, identify yourself!"_

_[To be continued...]_

**Feedback is more than welcome! c:**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello everyone! I have some housekeeping I need to go over before you proceed to read this latest chapter. First of all, for those that sent me an anon review telling me despite my interesting start of my AU, my pace for the plotline of it was too "slow" and not "thoroughly explained" on my first chapter. It was my intention to keep my readers be interested in the story and you can't expect to have a bunch of information being dumped in one go. It's my story to write and rightfully so. I will keep on going with implementing plots in small pieces for you dear readers to keep in mind, so that you can figure it out for yourselves.  
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**Thanks to reeves3 for beta-reading this! C:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

_"Intruders, identify yourself!"_

A voice boomed across the room, echoing through the aisles of the shop. It sounded stoic, emotionless, and robotic.

Ruby took a quick peek from the edge of the counter, and ducked as soon as guns pointed at her.

"How many of them are there?" Yang asked.

"Two and they're armed!"

_Shit, they must have found the circuit disruptor on the way here. _It was a smack on Ruby's face as she realized it was a rookie mistake of planted the circuit disruptor at a plain's sight. If she were to plant the disruptor at a place where it wasn't obvious from a distance, she and her sister would have no problems slipping under the Association's radar.

_So much for a quiet heist night_, Ruby thought as she peered over the edge of the counter.

It was the patrolling androids. 'They' were the ones Yang had been talking about. Originally, the androids were co-created by the Schnee Association along with the Atlas Corporation to serve purpose of military tactics and protect the citizens. They were built with an Artificial Intelligence to analyze and collect data for future research and development. Now, they've been reprogrammed with heavy surveillance to reinforce the rules the Association have established with heavy surveillance to ensure all citizens obey the systematic regime.

Otherwise, they will end up in a similar fate with the rest of the past groups that went up on the surface- a one million year sentence.

Like the drips of water slowly hitting its way down on the sink, the footsteps were drawing close to the spot where Ruby and Yang were hiding, and they were soon to be in a tight spot to make an escape.

Since Yang didn't bring along her hand-crafted weapons to fight with, she was left with Plan B - the escape plan.

"Yang! We only have _one_ chance to get out of this! Make it count!" Ruby hissed urgently. She knew they had one smoke bomb with a built-in electromagnetic disruptor to get out of this mess and the last thing they wanted was Yang to end up botching the execution and get caught.

Yang knew the routine. Whenever she and Ruby ended up in a tight spot, it was her responsibility to execute the escape plan successfully from the authorities. She messed up on the escape plans couple of times during their past heists which usually ended up with Ruby whining and complaining the lack of finesse Yang had. They had been incredibly lucky those times not to get caught.

Yang nodded back to reality and acknowledged Ruby's command.

"Okay, on the count of three!" Yang had learned from her past mistakes, and it was time to show it to Ruby without avail.

"One…" Her hand gripped the smoke bomb.

"Two…" Her heart beat started to race in anticipation.

"… _Three!_" With a war cry, Yang vaulted over the counter top and threw the bomb where it landed right at the feet of the androids.

_"Enemy hostile at si—"_

_BOOM! _The smoke bomb immediately clouded their visions, along with the knockout of the tele-communications from the electromagnetic disruptor function. A pulse resonated through the circuits of their built-in bodies, led up to ripples of electrical failures in the basic functions an android need to operate. None of which were able to recover a sudden disruption in the matter of seconds.

Yang jumped over the counter and grabbed her sister. "Alright, let's get outta here!"

Yang and Ruby made a getaway as they quickly as they could by crawling back into the air duct to the outside of the shop. As soon as they got up, they ran to a nearby area to grab their hoverboards which were hidden beneath the rubble.

The hoverboards were custom-built, powered up with white Dust properties for energy. It had a state-of-the-art turbo engine with the ability to glide in two modes: stealth and Turbo Max. Gliding in stealth mode served to avoid detection, while Turbo Max was used for emergencies.

Neither sister had an opportunity to activate the latter since they never ran into this much of a dire situation before.

That was, until now.

A constant wheeze from Yang's hoverboard was coughing through the engine start-up. Each time the ignition key was turned, it came out with similar results.

"What the hell! My ride isn't working at a time like this?!" Yang struggled as she was turning the ignition key repeatedly.

"Don't tell me you haven't pay attention to the maintenance schedule, Yang…" Ruby groaned. It was not the first time Yang had ran into an engine failure. Normally, Ruby would come over to see the damages her sister had done and perform a diagnostic test for signs of engine breakdown. It would take her approximately ten minutes to find and fix the problem.

Unfortunately, time was not on their side.

"Yang, we do not have time to stick around! We have to get out of here!"

Yang got up, flustered in frustration as she shoved her hover board into Ruby's hands. "Ugh! Lend me your board, then!"

Ruby staggered slightly as she held onto the board in confusion. "Wait, what about me?!"

Yang grabbed Ruby's hoverboard and turned on the ignition key. The engine was roaring in life, ready to be use in action.

Finally, it was music to her ears.

It took Yang a brief moment to think of a plan before vocalizing it out to Ruby. "I'll carry you while you hold onto my board! I'll have to use Turbo Max to get us home in a split second!"

A pair of silver eyes widened.

"What? Yang, are you crazy? We don't know the velocity of a hoverboard with Turbo Max!"

It was true. Both sisters were fully aware of unprecedented consequences for using Turbo Max of the board. Unlike stealth, the Turbo Max had a function to get to a destination in the matter of seconds with maximum energy in store. In other words, it would create a ruckus.

Yang knew what was coming, but she didn't care as she hopped onto the board without hesitation, reaching her hand out to Ruby. All she cared about was their safety of not getting identified by the Association.

"Do as I say, sis! Trust me!"

Ruby glanced at Yang's eyes. Behind the pool of lilac, a sense of determination was igniting into the depths of her soul. It told her Yang had the confidence to pull off the plan, knowing they will return home in one piece.

For a moment, an image of their father appeared in Ruby's mind.

**_No. Now it's not the time._** She mentally pushed her thoughts aside and then nodded at Yang while grabbing her hand tightly, knowing she was safe.

Yang noticed Ruby's slight falter, but quickly gave out a grin as she hoisted her little sister into her arms, clutching her to ensure she was safe in her hands. She will have to talk to Ruby about her drifted thoughts later.

"Alright, hold on tight sis!"

Yang weighed her legs down to set charge of the hoverboard. Within a few moments, a computerized sequence was already pre-set for their destination.

_Beep._ _"Rider, do you wish to activate Turbo Max mode?"_ It asked.

"Yes." Ruby nodded.

_Beep. "Turbo Max mode is online."_

_Rrrrrrr…ROOOOOOOAAAARRRRR! _With great speed and power, Yang and Ruby zoomed away to their underground home along with a few screams and plenty of dust to their wake.

Unbeknownst to them, a security camera at a hidden corner of a nearby building captured the footage and faces of the sisters. It may as well be the last time they enjoyed their freedom outside of the Association.

_[To be continued…]_

**Feedback is more than welcome! c:**


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